Sixteen Years
by thewalkerwiththesheriffhat
Summary: Sixteen years after his father shot Pete in the head, thirty-two year old Carl Grimes is the new Chief of Police in Alexandria. Following a horrific walker attack that cost the community many lives, will Carl and his wife Enid be able to protect them before the long awaited cure arrives?
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Hey guys, I hope you enjoy my very first fanfiction, chapter 1 of Sixteen Years. Hope you enjoy!**

 **Beta'd by BloodGutsAndChocolatePudding**

"We need to take him off the gates," sighed Carl, running his hand through his hair, and glancing at his wife.

"I know," Enid replied, reaching for his hand. She laced her fingers with his comfortingly. She knew exactly who her husband was talking about.

"He's reckless," Carl continued, "and we can't have that right now. Sam said there's a herd heading right for us."

"Shit," Enid mumbled under her breath. "Again?"

"We're working on changing its course," Carl reassured her. "Me and Sam are gonna take a car out. Maybe divert them into Lorton?"

"You're not," Enid told him.

"Enid-" began Carl, but she cut him off.

"Carl," she said firmly. "I don't want you to go."

"But I have to."

Enid looked at her husband, bewildered on what to do for the sake of the family.

"We need this," Carl told his wife, placing a hand over her stomach. "For them."

Enid nodded.

"Mom, Dad!" Fourteen year old Andrew Grimes was heading their way, as he came out of school. "What are you doing here?"

Carl swiftly removed his hand from Enid's stomach as his son approached. Sometimes Carl was shocked as to how much like him his son was. Especially since he had given him the sheriff's hat that his own father had bestowed upon him when he was twelve.

"We're going to get Jon, and go see Grandpa Rick," Enid told her son.

A look of fright crossed Andrew's face. "He hasn't gotten worse, has he?"

Enid pulled her son closer. "Of course not! We just have an announcement that we thought he should hear."

Rick Grimes had been in hospital for over three months now. Ever since his wife, Jessie, died in the attack on Alexandria, he hadn't been too good. A few days after her demise, Carol had walked in to see him unconscious on the floor. He was rushed to hospital, and diagnosed with an undetected heart condition. Put on an assisted breathing machine, he wasn't the same, but still liked regular visits from his family. After all, he was only fifty-four.

"Where's Jon?" Andrew asked his dad.

"Judith's looking after him, she picked him up from school this morning." Carl replied.

"Isn't he with, er," Andrew casually ran his hands through his unruly hair, "isn't he with Beth?"

Carl rolled his eyes as Enid stifled a laugh. Andrew Grimes was a little player, liking the older girls around the community. Specifically, the local daycare girl, seventeen year old Beth Rhee, who happened to be the only daughter of Glenn and Maggie Rhee, who, like Jessie, had been killed in an attack on Alexandria. He liked to think he was discreet, but everyone knew of his crush. It was something that made Carl and Enid laugh, even in the worst of situations.

"No, baby, she wasn't free today," Enid replied, trying to keep a straight face. "Why?"

Andrew's face fell, but as he answered he tried to regain his cool. "No reason," he coughed. "Just, uh, wondering..."

Carl grabbed the sheriff's hat that was perched on his son's head, and ruffled the boy's hair, before replacing the hat, reminded of his days as a teenager. At least his son got to grow up in a stable environment, and was able to have crushes like this. Childhood was something that Carl had desperately craved, and had been deprived of, growing up in the apocalypse. He wanted his children's lives to be as normal as possible, especially with a cure on the way.

* * *

"I'm glad you're all here," Enid was sat at the foot of Rick's hospital bed, surrounded by her children, Andrew and Jon, along with Judith and Michonne. "Carl and I have an announcement to make."

Rick sat a little further up in his hospital bed, and Judith lifted her head up to look at Enid, as Carl took a deep breath.

"You know that your mom and I love you guys very, very much, and that no one could ever replace you," Carl began, looking at his boys, before addressing the adults (and Judith). "And I know we had complications, before having the boys."

Carl looked at Enid, taking her hand.

She squeezed it tightly before looking at the people around her.

"And that's why we're really happy to announce," she smiled, "that we're having another baby."


	2. Chapter 2

"...We're having another baby."

Judith squealed, before jumping up, and throwing her arms around Carl, who laughed. He returned her embrace as everyone in the room congratulated Enid, and asked her questions about her pregnancy.

Judith let go of her brother, and sat next to her father. Rick took her hand, and gave it a feeble squeeze. She rested her head against his shoulder, smiling happily.

Andrew was hugging his mother tightly, asking her hundreds of questions, which made Enid laugh. He placed his hand on Enid's stomach gently. "Do we know whether it's a boy or a girl?"

"We'll have to wait until they're born to know that," she replied. Andrew moved his hand around her stomach as he nodded. "You won't be able to feel it yet, honey."

"You never know," Andrew replied, grinning at his mother.

"Wait, so I'm gonna be a big brother?" asked Jon, grinning widely, and showing off the gap where one of his two front teeth should have been. Enid nodded, smiling.

"Pretty cool, huh?" said Carl, ruffling his youngest son's hair.

 _Smash!_

Everyone looked to the window to see the remaining glass shatter, screams from the Alexandrians seeping through it. Sam's head appeared at the window.

"Only way I could get to you, the doors are locked. There's a herd, and we need to act fast."

Carl pulled a gun from under his belt, "I thought we were going to try and change their course?"

"Well there's more than I was bargaining for," Sam sighed. "Come on."

Carl hopped out of the window, followed by Michonne. "Get the boys home, lock the doors, and don't look back," he directed Enid. "Go!"

Carl ran down the path to the gates, gun in hand. "What's the situation?" he asked Sam.

"We've got Carol and Tara up on Station 3 at the moment. Michonne's on Station 2 with Rosita. We've got Mikey and Ron on Station 4, and Morgan's on the gates with Abraham. Carl, you'll be on the main station with me," Sam replied, hitching his foot onto the ladder. Carl nodded. "Use your gun as a last resort - the crossbows are our main defence until we get more ammo."

As a tribute to the late Daryl Dixon, Carol had come up with a new weapon for the front line of security. Crossbows with retractable rope on a button pulley system. You simply have stand on the platform, fire your arrow from the height advantage, then simply retract it, and shoot again. They found that, with the right training, the survivors could quite easily put down at least a dozen walkers in under a minute.

Carl grabbed his bow and aimed it at the nearest walker's head. Direct hit. He knew how to kill walkers far too well, but even with all his practice, killing didn't come easy to Carl, despite them not being human. The only thing that kept him going nowadays was Enid, his children, God he loved his children, and the Cure, as it had been dubbed by the Alexandrians.

A while ago, before Enid got pregnant, and before the attack, he had been on a run with his dad. They came across an old police car and Rick tapped into the radio. What they heard changed their lives. A cure. There was a cure. A British radio station had managed to broadcast internationally, and on their end of the radio connection was a voice, that repeated the same words over and over again.

 _'There is a cure,_

 _If you can hear us, stay put._

 _It's being tested in England, and it's working on our people._

 _We'll come for you, and we'll help._

 _Stay put.'_

That was a while ago, and it had nearly been forgotten in the attack, all they could think about was burying their dead and mourning their losses, getting Alexandria back to the safe haven it once was. But it's always been there for Carl. He could barely remember life before the apocalypse, and his children didn't know anything but it. Carl liked to think that his children were quite well grounded and normal. He and Enid tried to show their children that, though walkers are dangerous, and need to be put down, people are not to be treated the same, and to never kill an innocent human except in extreme circumstances. Carl didn't want his children turning into another Lizzie. Or himself...

The memories he did have of before the apocalypse were of his family. Trips to the lake, picnics in the park. He wanted his family to know what it felt like to be safe. And that's why Carl kept shooting.

x

"Come on boys, down the stairs. Andrew, keep hold of Jon, don't let him fall again," Enid ushered her children, along with Judith down the stairs. She walked them along the underground corridor and up the stairs into the house. Bolting the door behind her, she checked all the windows and sat with the boys on the sofa.

Judith had Jon on her lap, wiping the tear tracks from his cheeks as he put his hands over his ears. Andrew held his brothers wrist, stroking it comfortingly. The sound of gunshots scared Jon, and Andrew was always there to calm him down.

"It'll all be okay, boys," Enid said. "We'll survive, we always do."

"JSS," Andrew smiled weakly.

"JSS."

x

The walkers were thinning around Ron and Mikey's platform, it was just a matter of taking out the last few stragglers before they moved to Station 1 with Carl and Sam.

"So," Mikey said, "what's with you and the Grimes family lately?"

"Nothing," Ron grunted, taking down a walker clawing at the wall.

Mikey scoffed. "I beg to differ. I was there with Marie yesterday. Jon misses you, man."

Ron laid down his cross bow, before facing Mikey. "Maybe his mother shouldn't have made me his godfather then. I wouldn't have to spend so much time with the damn kid."

"That's a bit harsh."

"Well, it's the truth!"

There was silence between the two, only broken by the walkers.

"Listen," Mikey said, "you need to lay off Enid, it's affecting the kids, and not to mention the fact that she's married!"

Ron turned to Mikey, glaring at him.

"Oh, so as long as Sheriff Fuck-Up is happy with his perfect family nothing is wrong?" Ron snarled. "Is that it? Is Carl so overwhelmingly perfect that the entire Safe Zone fucking revolves around him!?"

Mikey held his hands up to the advancing Ron, who was clearly furious.

"Look, man," Mikey said, "step back and calm down, no need to do anything irrational."

"Enid loves me," Ron stepped closer.

"What!? You're insane!" Mikey gripped the gun in his back pocket.

"Take your hand off the gun Mikey," Ron said gently. "No one's getting hurt here."

Mikey reluctantly let go of his gun. "Ron, you have to understand that Enid is married, she has kids. She'd never leave Carl."

"It's all about that fucking idiot!" Ron screamed.

"Ron!" Mikey yelled, as the man approached him again. "You're attracting walkers, shut up!"

Ron's eyes glinted. "Exactly."

He lunged at Mikey, grabbing him by the shoulders and pushing him down so his head dangled dangerously over the edge of the wall. Mikey struggled, as he felt each individual finger close around his throat. The next thing he knew was that he was falling, until he hit the ground with a smack.

Dead on impact.


End file.
